The Paintings of Paul Cezanne: A Catalogue Raisonne - Review

Sometimes the alien touch is nearly everywhere and not so friendly. When this happens, it seems plausible that an "unfinished" work, one barely painted at all, was taken up and completed by either an honest admirer or a dishonest entrepreneur. Such a work might also have originated with one of CEzanne's occasional painting companions, young acolytes who consciously imitated him. Given CEzanne's practices and habits (he was not particularly possessive), there were many opportunities for the production of hybrids, and their existence should always be suspected. It surprises me that Rewald (and also Feilchenfeldt [p. 15]) retained without serious question the painting Baigneurs et baigneuses (R750); this not only lacks the vibrancy seen in other Cezannes of its period (Rewald dates it "circa 1890"), but it also has a near double, much more impressive - Groupe de baigneurs (R755). By comparison, Baigneurs et baigneuses is dry and mechanical. Its anatomical details seem formulaic: the various saliences (knees, elbows, buttocks) are accented in red with uncharacteristic insistence and thoroughness. Granted, Cezanne used such accents, but with irregularity and organicism. The spread of brushmarks and colors throughout Baigneurs et baigneuses lacks the variation and nuance to be seen even in the artist's slightest works. This canvas may have been begun by Cezanne, but is unlikely to have been "finished" by him.

If I have such disagreements with Rewald, I, like all others, still depend on his work to have set the standards and questions. Had his previous publications and personal example not guided me, I would never understand Cezanne well enough to differ responsibly from his catalogue's judgments. The Paintings of Paul Cezanne, this new "Rewald," becomes more than a revision of the old "Venturi"; it is the definitive replacement. Although I find it hard to imagine, "Rewald" will someday also be replaced, for, in its Cezannesque way, the new catalogue is neither finished nor capable of being finished.

John Rewald himself is another matter. With his unique combination of knowledge, irony, and humor, this personal Rewald - in memory - will continue to provoke and to inspire, no replacement possible.

RICHARD SHIFF

Department of Art and Art History The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Tex. 78712-1104

Notes

1. Lionello Venturi, Cezanne, son art - son oeuvre, 2 vols. (Paris: Paul Rosenberg, 1936); John Rewald, "A propos du catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre de Paul Cezanne et de la chronologie de cette oeuvre," La Renaissance 20 (Mar.-April 1937): 53-56.

2. John Rewald, Paul Cezanne: The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonne (Boston: Little, Brown, 1983), 11-12.

3. On Marchutz and the photographs, see John Rewald, "The Last Motifs at Aix," in William Rubin, ed., Cezanne: The Late Work, exh. cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1977, 105-106.

4. Rewald (as in n. 1), 55. For Rewald's comments on a reworked painting, see The Paintings of Paul Cezanne, vol. 1, 402-403, entry for cat. no. 606. (Hereafter, Rewald's commentaries are designated in the text by the catalogue number of the entry, without pagination; thus: R606. References to introductory essays by Rewald, Walter Feilchenfeldt, and Jayne Warman are indicated by page number; thus: p. 12.)